The New Yorker has a nice article on the Lavabit back story and current status. It recounts the details of the negotiations between Lavabit and the government. It’s pretty clear that the government was disingenuous about their demands. Armed with a subpoena for the metadata on a single account, they insisted that Lavabit’s owner, Ledar Levison, turn over his SSL keys thereby giving the FBI the ability to monitor all traffic in and out of the site. It’s not clear that the judge, in particular, really understood the issues and what the government was actually demanding.
Levison remarks that even without Snowden as the proximate cause, the government would sooner or later have come after Lavabit because it represented a gap in their intelligence—in their desired ability to monitor all communications. Right now Levison is fighting in the Fourth Circuit Court the government’s right to make such demands. One can only hope he prevails but it’s hard to be sanguine about his chances.
Late Breaking: Lavabit is apparently going to make a Fourth Amendment argument to the court. The idea is that Lavabit’s 40,000 customers who aren’t named Snowden are having their Fourth Amendment right to be secure in their privacy without probable cause and a particularized warrant violated. As the NSA and the FISA courts have demonstrated, the government doesn’t much care about the fourth amendment; they just shout “Look! Terrorists.” and charge ahead. So, again, it’s hard to be hopeful about the outcome.